Learn Grade Five Music Theory Online

ABRSM grade five is one of the most popular music theory courses to study. A pass in grade five theory is needed if you want to take grade six or higher in any instrument with the ABRSM, so it's often the grade many students begin with.

The Grade 5 online music lessons at My Music Theory are designed to be accessible by students who have never studied music theory before. If you are around grade 3/4 on your instrument, you don't necessarily need to work through the earlier grades, you can just jump right in at Lesson 1, Grade 5.

How would you like to learn?

Syllabus (ABRSM)

As in preceding grades, with the addition of:

Irregular time signatures of 5/4, 7/4, 5/8, 7/8 and the grouping of notes and rests within these times. Irregular divisions of simple time values.

Tenor clef (C clef centred on 4th line). The identification of notes in the four clefs in any of the keys set for this grade, and the transposition at the octave of a simple melody from any clef to another. The writing at concert pitch of a melody notated for an instrument in Bb, A or F, and vice versa (the interval of transposition up or down will be given).

Scales and key signatures of all major and minor keys up to and including six sharps and flats. All simple and compound intervals from any note.

The identification of the 5-3, 6-3 and 6-4 forms of the tonic, supertonic, subdominant and dominant chords in any of the keys set for this grade. The identification of the progression 6-4, 5-3 (Ic-V) on the dominant note in any of the keys set for this grade. The choice of suitable chords, using any recognized method of notation, at cadential points of a simple melody in the major key of C, G, D or F.

More terms and signs. The recognition of ornaments, including the replacement of written-out ornamentation with the appropriate signs, but not vice versa. Questions about a passage of music written for voices or instruments appropriate to the grade will include questions on the types of voice and names of instruments, the clefs they use, instrument family groups and the basic way by which they produce sound, as well as points of general musical observation designed to test the candidate’s ability to apply theoretical knowledge to actual music.

Grade 5 Music Theory - Free Online Course

This is the contents of our Grade 5 Music Theory online course - available to you completely free of charge.

You can download the whole grade 5 music theory course as a PDF (plus lots of extra exercises!) for a small fee here.

The course covers the entire grade 5 theory syllabus (ABRSM new syllabus and Trinity), and should be followed in order for best results.

There are exercises for each topic immediately after each lesson. There's also complete mock exam (not a past paper) at the end of the course.

We hope you enjoy this grade 5 music theory course! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.